Wow – thanks, brilliant stuff! I’m off to the States at the weekend (5 more sleeps!), first to New York/New Jersey, then on to DC. Your pics and report have proper got me in the holiday mood. I especially can’t wait to visit the Smithsonian and see all those marvellous (ex-) flying machines. Funny how they put the Spirit of St Louis and Space Ship One together! Nice to see your pics of DCA too, that’s the airport we chose to fly back from (via Newark), as it’s about 5 mins from our hotel in Crystal city.

Oh! I saw the Oman/Globespan hybrid from the Drum & Monkey pub on Friday, right after seeing it in Airliner World! Very nice indeed, watched it take off too, from the BA departures bit 🙂

Just for fun, I also saw a full on Oman version taxiing at Heathrow last night on the return journey – compare and contrast 😀

Buzz Aldrin’s answer to conspiracy theorists
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nQSB9ClOc

Go Buzz! Excellent stuff 😀

Saw this on another forum today, made me chuckle muchly:

(OK, slightly inaccurate as 13 were launched, but yeah – just makes a point!)

I have never disbelieved for a second that Armstrong, Shepard, Bean et al really did walk on the moon! It makes me mad when I read of any hoax theories.

However, for the film Moon (highly recommended), Shepperton studios did a pretty good re-creation of the lunar surface 😉

I get the impression that Edgar Mitchell is less in touch with reality than his contemporaries since his ‘epiphany’ in space. Maybe that was just the way Andrew Smith told it in Moondust though. Don’t get me wrong, I still have high respect for Mitchell, as I would anyone working on Apollo/Gemini/Mercury etc! As much as I’m sold on the truth that there must be life elsewhere in the universe, I don’t believe we’ve been ‘visited’.

I like the little British Airways RJ, I spotted one on Friday night as we were about to leave on a BMI Baby flight. I guess it flies to London City? Glasgow always makes for great shots with those hills in the background 😀

That’s awful. I was intending to visit Intrepid when we go to NYC later this year, but this makes me think twice. I’m still interested in the Mercury capsule recovery side, but I’d be upset to see a Concorde mistreated like that. Think I’ll save the admission fee for a second visit to the Smithsonian in DC :diablo:

I’ve seen the one at North Berwick, and she’s in wonderful condition. The tour was unaccompanied except for a headset, but no-one seems to have defaced any part of the beautiful plane.

Nice! PIA’s livery is so beautiful these days, or at least the tails are – I saw a fantastic example at Birmingham recently, though it wasn’t a 747 unfortunately!

My first post – hello!

1. Tristar, especially in old Delta livery (guess who watched Air Crash Investigation last night?! Flight 191 :()

2. Concorde

3. B757-200 with winglets 🙂

PS – A380 is a close runner up!